"How do you feel Ana?" Michelle asked and Ana just turned to look at her. How did she feel?

Standing in the foyer of SIP watching all the rushing around, the coming and going, the light conversation. She'd missed this. Her job mean everything to her until Hyde ruined it all. Now she knew there was an editor's job waiting for her, manuscripts piling high waiting for her to look at.

"I feel cheated." Ana replied surprising Michelle and that was obvious by the look on her face.

"Why?" Michelle asked softly.

"Because I loved working here. I loved being an assistant at the start of my career." Ana sighed sadly. "In one moment I lost that."

"But you still have a job?" Michelle asked.

"I was offered to be acting editor while they searched for a replacement for Jack." Ana explained. "But I couldn't come back. I didn't know that Christian had bought the company and he made them keep the position open for me to have a trial. He swears he isn't making them give me the job, he says Roach the boss wanted me to try it out and then if I wasn't good enough get someone else. But I hate knowing he's interfered in my career."

"Is that how you see it? Like he's interfered?" Michelle asked gently, just leading the conversation but making Ana think too.

"I don't know. I mean I'm so grateful that I still have a job to come back to. I know most people wouldn't have had the healing time I have from their place of work." Ana replied. "I just don't want to do the editor's job just because Christian secured it for me."

"But you say Roach offered it." Michelle replied.

"Yes, Christian was actually surprised when that happened." Ana said having a little light bulb moment. "Roach wanted me… Christian just made them wait for me." Ana smiled, maybe he didn't really interfere after all.

"Why don't we go to your office?" Michelle asked and Ana gave a nervous nod.

As she walked the butterflies began to flutter. She had expected that. Her heart beat loudly in her ears. She wiped her sweaty hands on her trousers and swallowed the lump that was in her throat. Ana knew she could do this.

Her hand shook as she reached for the door remembering the last time she'd been there, where she'd violently reacted to the anger that Jack Hyde had caused her. She counted in her mind, 1, 2, 3, then she opened the door and took the three steps needed to enter.

She gasped, her hands flew to her face as she looked around. The office was…gone.

"Christian Grey." Michelle whispered shaking her head.

"He had it decorated." Ana replied looking around, it looked nothing like what it used to.

"He has." Michelle replied slightly angry, it would mean that Ana would never be able to confront the anxiety of the old office.

It was now much lighter. The window sill had been cleared and only some potted plants sat there instead of the old dusty books. The walls were bare, waiting for Ana to become an established editor with covers to hang. The old wood was had been painted light blue, brightening the room up and the old rickety desk had been replaced with a dark glass replacement. It was already covered in manuscripts waiting for her to get stuck into them.

"Wow." Ana sighed softly. "I wasn't expecting this." She said emotionally.

"How do you feel Ana?" Michelle asked softly, she wasn't sure what to make of Ana's reaction.

"I mean it's lovely." Ana scoffed weakly. "It's perfect but…"

"But?"

"Well it's a bit anticlimactic." Ana started to laugh. "I have spent all morning trying to build myself to come here…" She said as tears started to spill down her cheeks. She wasn't sure what was going on, she felt happy to see the office changed but there was a weird sort of sadness there too.

"We should sit." Michelle said worrying about Ana's reaction.

Ana followed Michelle over to the long white couch which had replaced the old beige thing that used to be in the office. The whole layout had been changed too, not a single shelf remained that had been there before and their replacements had been put in different places.

"Ok, just breathe Ana." Michelle said quietly as she realised that Ana was having a little bit of an anxiety attack.

"Why would he do this?" Ana asked shaking slightly as she fought her tears.

"I don't think he meant it to upset you." Michelle reassured gently. "He was trying to help in his own way."

"It does." Ana said starting to laugh weakly. "I mean it's amazing but I wanted to face it. To come to terms with it and deal with it. Now it doesn't exist." She explained as more tears tumbled down her cheeks.

"Well that isn't necessarily a bad thing Ana. It doesn't exist anymore. While it doesn't wipe away what happened and it doesn't heal the trauma. The anxiety you felt about the office can no longer exist because the office no longer exists. You've done it, you've faced all your anxieties."

"What?" Ana replied unsure what Michelle meant.

"Well, a lot of anxieties are caused by things that are unchangeable, that's why it's important to deal with them when they become more aggressive on the anxiety scale." Michelle explained gently. "So when we did our hierarchy of triggers and started to face them, a lot of the things that caused you issues like the front of the building, they're unchangeable so you had to learn to face them and learn that they were not going to harm you. However, the greatest trigger, this room, was changeable. You change it and the anxiety goes away, and that's ok when we know the old office doesn't exist somewhere else. It's not like a fixed and unchangeable object like the outside of a building or a vehicle make and model."

"So because the space has changed the anxiety has too?" Ana asked wiping her tears.

"Yeah." Michelle nodded. "It's not usually do-able but when it can be done sure, there's no problem with banishing the anxiety with change."

"This isn't a set back then?" Ana asked now admitting to Michelle what she was fearing.

"Not at all. Ana you've done it, you've confronted all the fixed triggers. There will still be some things that will catch you off guard, certain touched, certain sounds. But those things will become less and less and if you find something that does become a fixed trigger, you now know how to confront it and how to deal with it." Michelle smiled and she was surprised when Ana threw her arms around her neck and held her.

"Thank you." Ana choked. "I could never have done this without you and your patience and understanding."

"Ana it's been my pleasure." She'd genuinely enjoyed working with Ana and see her getting stronger every day, the pay cheque helped too though as Christian was paying her well to be away from her family.

"You've been amazing." Ana replied before pulling away. "Even when I've rang you in the early hours of the morning."

"It's been a while since you did that." Michelle chuckled, those conversations were always fun because Ana would have woken up in a panic attack from a nightmare and wouldn't want to disturb Christian. "and my work here is done."

"Well I'm taking you to lunch to celebrate." Ana replied excitedly, now she felt like life really could start to move on.

"No you're not. I'm popping to see Christian and say my goodbyes because I'm going home and you are going to settle into your new office and you new job." Michelle replied her hands giving Ana's a gentle squeeze. "You've got your whole life ahead of you now. Just enjoy it and make the most of it." She said as she stood. Ana struggled to hold back the tears, she'd miss Michelle when she left and Ana would be eternally grateful to her.

They shared another hug before Michelle left and Ana watched as the office door closed and realised that was both a real and a proverbial door closing. She turned to her office and smiled, for the first time she really could see that life would be good again, that she could be happy and that things were going to change. The daemon of her anxiety no longer weighed heavily on her shoulders and she felt lighter and freer than she had since that fateful day.